Chris Horner's Team RadioShack diary: Tour of California stage 3

Associated PressChris Horner (yellow shoes), Lance Armstrong (center) and other Team RadioShack members push the pace during a climb Tuesday in the Tour of California.Associated PressDavid Zabriskie (center) holds a surfboard on the podium after beating Michael Rogers (left) and Levi Leipheimer (right) to win the third stage of the Tour of California cycling race, in Santa Cruz, Calif., Tuesday.SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - The major excitement for the day started at Bonny Doon, with the
exception of the first hour, where attacks were coming one after
another until we left the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). At that point,
the road narrowed and a break of five got away. From there until Bonny
Doon, Team RadioShack’s J-Mac and Dmitriy were riding the front,
setting tempo for most of the day with the help of two Cervelo riders.

The
battle to stay at the front as we neared the start of the climb was
once again nervous and stressful. Team RadioShack’s plan so far for
the day was going as planned. We wanted to hit the climb full gas, and
try to give Levi the chance to win the stage and gain time over his
closest rivals. As soon as the climb went up, Popo hit the gas hard
and strung the field completely out. All of the favorites were just
hanging on, and I was about 10th wheel when Popo was starting to fade,
so I rolled up to Levi, and asked him if he was ready. He gave me the
nod, jumped on my wheel, and it was full gas. I hit 650 watts,
splintering the group down to six riders – myself, Levi, and Lance
Armstrong representing The Shack; Mick Rogers, team leader for
HTC-Columbia; Dave Zabriskie, team leader for Garmin-Transitions; and
Rory Sutherland of UTC.

After a very short time, my pace
dropped off, and it was now time for Levi to go to work. Before taking
off, he asked me how much more I had left in the tank, and I told him
not much! He exploded off my wheel, taking just Mick Rogers and Dave
for company. The three riders went up the road and would do their own
battle. From behind, the group began to swell, as the pace was easing
off, allowing riders to catch back on from behind.

Riders were
attacking individually from my group, trying to make it across to the
leading three, but with Levi already up the road by over a minute, it
wasn’t difficult to tell that it would take more than just one rider to
ever see those guys again! Also, with Lance, Jani, Chechu and I left
to cover all of the attacks, no one was going to be going across
without a little RadioShack company along for the ride. Ryder
Hesjedal, for some reason, was riding the front hard and attacking us,
even though he already had a teammate up the road in Levi’s group.
From my view from fifth in line, it didn’t seem like a very good
tactic, but maybe his view was different from the front.

It
took until just over the summit of the climb for some of the teams not
represented in the lead group to get a little organization and start
working together to chase. Phil Zajicek from Fly V Australia, Lucas
Euser from SpiderTech, and two Liquigas riders were the only ones
chasing. The pace was fast and furious down the descent and over the
rollers, with the time to the three leaders coming down a little at a
time as each mile rolled by. With just a few miles to go, the lead was
down to less than 20 seconds, and it looked as though there was a
chance that the leaders might be brought back just before the finish
for a group sprint. But with a mile to go, no one in the group had any
energy to keep pulling hard.

Levi, Mick, and Dave were left to
battle it out for the stage and the jersey, with Dave coming out on
top, Mick second, and Levi third. We rolled in 17 seconds behind,
leaving the battle for the overall general classification still wide
open, among the 19 riders who are within 27 seconds of the lead. I was
happy to see Zabriskie win the stage. He’s a rider who is always up
front in the battle for general classification, is a very entertaining
character to have in the field, and one who I always enjoy racing with.

For Team RadioShack today, there are pros and cons with how the
stage finished. We were really looking to get Levi some space from
either Mick or Dave, and of course, that didn’t quite work out. But
the big up side is that for the next two stages and 90 miles of the
third stage, our five general classification riders should be able to
completely rest before the next battle for the lead hits. We’ve been
incredibly strong in the mountains for the past two days, even though
we’ve also had to ride the front, and with the upcoming rest, only time
will tell what the outcome will be!

- Chris Horner, who lives in Bend, is Oregon’s top road racing cyclist. Read his previous pieces at oregonlive.com/horner